2016 polls: EC nearly plunged Ghana into chaos – Iddrisu

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu has accused the Electoral Commission (EC) of nearly plunging Ghana into chaos due to its delay in announcing the 2016 presidential election results.

The Tamale South legislator said this during the debate for the approval of the 2017 annual estimates of the EC to the tune of GHS33.9million.

Mr Iddrisu also advised the EC to improve their data collection system to ensure smooth transmission of electoral results within 48 hours.

“Mr Chairman, there was uneasiness even as the commission attempted or wanted to declare the results. That should not be the case and I think that they must improve their data collection system and we must as a country decide that not later than 48 or 72 hours the outcome of the presidential election must be made known,” he stated.

“I think that as a country we must build a consensus on that… [the time] should be adequate enough. In times past the problem was whether [results] from Afram Plains had come and whether results from another deprived part of the country, maybe Asunafo and others, have come.

Whatever it is, in the world of technology, we should come to a consensus as a country as to the time period allowed for the declaration of the results subject to a final declaration which the constitution requires should be gazetted because for persons who may want to question the outcome of the election they will also be able to do so because Mr Speaker, the uneasiness in 2016 could have plunged the country into a crisis of a sort and that can undermine the way forward of deepening our democracy.”